


Ultimatum

by jujubiest



Series: PoI Ficlets [3]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Character Thoughts, Ficlet, Gen, The Contingency
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-13
Updated: 2014-10-13
Packaged: 2018-02-21 01:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2450183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujubiest/pseuds/jujubiest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a silence in his right ear that puts him constantly off balance. He's used to carrying Finch there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ultimatum

**Author's Note:**

> Set at the end of 2x01: The Contingency.

_“In the end we’re all alone, and no one is coming to save you.”_

Reese doesn’t want to kid himself that Jessica thought of him in her last moments; he’s been in enough near-death situations to know that what she probably thought was some incoherent blank space in the vague form of a terrified “please.” But he knows his words were on her mind in the days leading up to her death, and that’s almost worse. They were cold words, without comfort…and they turned out to be exactly right.

He told her he’d be there in twenty-four hours…but twenty-four hours took him more than two months, and he was too late.

Now Finch’s first twenty-four hours are up. Reese can’t be late again.

He feels Finch’s absence like a cold spot at his shoulder. There’s a silence in his right ear that puts him constantly off balance. He’s used to carrying Finch there, an anchor.

Finch was the eyes to see him through the darkness, a sense of direction without which he finds himself stumbling aimlessly along, searching fruitlessly.

The punchline is that Finch would have found himself by now. He was good at finding things, and even better at fixing broken toy soldiers and putting them back to work. He would have aimed Reese at him like a precision-guided missile, and then Reese could do what _he_ does best: break every last obstacle between him and Finch down with his bare hands, leave a trail of gory crime scenes from here to anywhere, a message for the rest of the world: not this one. Not him. Not if you want to keep on breathing.

He stared up at the camera, desperate but not begging. Demanding. Issuing his ultimatum. He ignored the panicked voice of his latest charge. He ignored the sounds of motorbike engines growing ever closer, shut off all the instincts that told him to stay on his guard, defend, protect.

“Do the math,” he said. “And figure out a way to bend your rules, ‘cause he’s my friend. He saved my life. Understand? And I won’t do this without him.”

**Author's Note:**

> I just finished rewatching season one and the start of season two with my roommate, and I had a lot of feelings.


End file.
